The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees has moved forward on plans to build a new basketball training and player development facility, which will be a 48,000-square foot expansion adjacent to Coleman Coliseum. On Thursday, the board met to approve the project's reallocated budget, architectural design, and the authorization of a construction contract. A Coleman Coliseum renovation also was approved.

The facility is already under construction and is expected to open in 2026, at a cost of roughly $59 million. It will include new locker rooms, training rooms, weight rooms, coaches offices and more. The project comes just as Crimson Tide men's basketball is asserting itself as one of the top programs in the nation.

The BOT approved the first two stages of the project in June.

"The practice gym is the coach’s classroom," UA Director of Athletics Greg Byrne told The Tuscaloosa News in June. "It’s where they teach and they develop. We’re doing this right now to take a very significant step for our basketball programs and then allowing us to navigate the waters that we’re in in college athletics right now. Then realizing the arena still has to be addressed."

Alabama's men's basketball team reached the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history last spring.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.

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This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama trustees approve new basketball training facility